


Snapshots of the Fools Around Us

by megastarstrike



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Fluff, For an exchange, M/M, Mutual Pining, Oumoron, Sumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 15:22:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17368427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megastarstrike/pseuds/megastarstrike
Summary: In which Shuuichi and Kokichi tip-toe around each other in the world's stupidest dance duet, and their friends, as audience members, can only sigh at their stumbles.





	Snapshots of the Fools Around Us

**Author's Note:**

> i regret nothing
> 
> i hope you like your gift no. 43

It began with a strange, tight feeling in his chest whenever he looked at the enigma named Kokichi Ouma.

Thankfully, the cafeteria was not a place Shuuichi needed to be concerned about his heart suddenly turning into slush. It wasn’t even an area where his anxiety peaked; he had his friends with him, and the noise levels weren’t too high, given how many students were in the school. And sometimes, they were even allowed to sit in the courtyard during lunch periods, where his entire class just so happened to be, despite it being winter.

Shuuichi poked at the blob of rice in his lunchbox with the tip of his chopsticks, tuning out the sound of Maki droning on about some kid who tried stealing a lollipop from her pocket and instead focusing on the boy across the yard from them.

Kokichi, to no one’s surprise, changed who he sat with every day. Mondays were usually reserved for Rantarou, who desperately needed an outlet after spending a weekend with an ambiguous amount of family members (though nobody could figure out why he chose to go to Kokichi of all people for that outlet). Tuesdays, he didn’t even show up to the courtyard; he was in the robotics room with Kiibo and Miu. Wednesdays were calm days with Gonta as Kokichi would inevitably be dragged into a bug-searching mission. Thursdays were painting days with Angie or helping Tsumugi with various outfits. And Fridays, he would spend with Shuuichi, all by themselves.

Shuuichi bit back a smile upon remembering today was Thursday.

Paint streaks were strewn across Kokichi’s face from the brief jostling match he had with Angie over him hogging the paints. Even still, they couldn’t block out the sheer radiance on his face as he undoubtedly drew something that would make Angie wonder why she spent time with him. His eyes were bright and playful, reflective of the personality Shuuichi observed every day. The weather was particularly nice today, allowing stray strands of hair to frame his face perfectly.

“Shuuichi!”

The snap of his name drew him out of his trance. “Huh?”

Kaito sighed. “Dude, we’ve been calling your name for two minutes. What’s up with you?”

“... Isn’t Kokichi so cute?”

His sentence drew different reactions from his friends: a strained but encouraging smile from Kaede, a bewildered expression on Kaito’s face, and Maki’s wrinkled nose.

“Uh…” Kaito whipped around to follow Shuuichi’s eyes. “Not really, but you do you, I guess.”

Maki’s response was much more definite. “No. Not at all.”

Kaede tilted her head. “Why? Do _you_ think he’s cute?”

“I mean… who doesn’t?” Shuuichi said, suddenly much less sure about the position he had put himself into. “Other than Maki, of course.”

Silence.

Kaede smiled and patted him on the head. “You do you.”

It wasn’t nearly as reassuring as she probably intended her action to be, but Shuuichi nodded and fell silent as the conversation picked back up.

 

* * *

 

“Kokichi, you’re a fucking idiot, and I hate you. I hope you know that.”

Kokichi rolled his eyes, walking forward without sparing the girl behind him a glance. “Yeah, I know. I heard you the first two hundred times you said that.”

The streets of the city were at their peak hours. Cars trudged along the road, the roads mucked with traffic. The sidewalks were no better, but that didn’t stop Kokichi from dragging Miu to every store within a ten mile radius.

Kokichi’s eyes brightened. He grabbed Miu’s hand before dragging both of them into some other shop.

The shop’s atmosphere was stiff and uncomfortable. Everything from top to bottom was constructed out of light brown wood and reeked of sophistication, something neither Kokichi nor Miu were familiar with or fond of. Every corner reeked of polish and bleach.

Miu’s face scrunched, and she wrinkled her nose. “What the fuck are we doing here, Cockichi? What are you even looking for?”

Unsurprisingly, Kokichi didn’t seem to be bothered by the shop or Miu. He hummed a tune with a smile on his face as he dug through the middle shelf of a bookcase.

“Can you stop fingering the papers and actually talk to me?” Miu moved to block his fingers before suddenly stopping. “Wait. Don’t tell me you dragged me on this shopping trip to buy a gift for Pooichi.”

Kokichi’s demeanor remained the same, but his fingers faltered for a split second, something that wouldn’t be caught by anyone who wasn’t his best friend.

Miu’s mouth fell open. “Are you fucking kidding me? You can’t just make him a bento like a normal person or something?”

“Shut the fuck up, whore!” Kokichi whisper-shouted. He returned to the papers before pulling out a thick journal. Judging by the pictures and summaries written next to them, it appeared to be packed with records of trips.

Miu’s curiosity won out over her frustration. She gingerly took the book out of his hands and flipped through it. “This is a weird gift to give to your gay crush. Are you sure this isn’t suited more for someone like Cucktarou?”

“Maybe, but I get the feeling Shuuichi will like this more. Also, here.” He grabbed another book out of the shelves and pushed it into Miu’s hands, taking the journal in return.

She squinted at the cover. “ _Story of Tokono?_ Who the fuck do you think I am?”

“A bitch.”

“Fuck you, too. Let’s just buy this shit.”

“Oh, so you actually like it?”

“No, shut up.”

“Haha, liar!”

Miu huffed but stayed silent.

And later when she caught Shuuichi eagerly flipping through the pages of the travel journal while Kokichi watched from afar, she stayed silent as well, wondering just how she had been dragged into this situation.

 

* * *

 

Mornings in homeroom were always reserved for one thing and one thing only: copying everyone else’s homework before the teacher could walk in.

But as far as Kaede knew, Shuuichi was never the type to participate in such a thing.

“What do you mean you haven’t done your language arts homework?” Kaede asked, gesturing towards his incomplete worksheet.

“I don’t really get metaphors,” Shuuichi said quietly. “And I don’t really get verbal irony. I would ask one of you for help, but…”

Ah, right. Kaede was really only useful in music classes (for obvious reasons) and sometimes in math by extension. Kaito’s skills shined in physics and math as well, though he wasn’t too terribly good at any other sciences or any other subjects that didn’t capture his interest. And Maki just didn’t care enough to come to school early enough for her friends to copy off her.

Kaede clapped her hands together. “Oh, you could totally ask Kokichi!”

Shuuichi’s face burned red at the sheer mention of the name. “W-What? No, I can’t!”

“Why not? Doesn’t he have the highest grade in the class?”

“I just… What if he makes fun of me?”

“Come on, have more faith in him than that. You’re his favorite!”

“Wait, I am?”

“Kokichi!” Kaede called, ignoring the look of horror Shuuichi shot her. “Could you please come over here for a second? Shuuichi has a very important question to ask you.”

Kokichi looked up from what she presumed to be another argument with Miu with a bright smile. “Of course! Anything for my beloved Shuuichi!”

“Kaede, why?” Shuuichi mumbled, hiding his face behind his hands.

“It’s for your own good.”

“What does that even mean?”

Kaede patted him on the shoulder before making her exit, allowing Kokichi to rocket to where she had been sitting a moment prior.

 

* * *

 

“Come to my play!” Kokichi chirped as he handed out multiple flyers to the same person.

Rantarou accepted the papers but didn’t so much as look at them, instead opting to scroll through copious amounts of fashion pictures on social media. “That’s great, but maybe you should ask other people. I already told you I’m busy on that day.”

“But I already gave some to Miu and Angie. Who else do I give it to?”

And by “giving,” he meant throwing it into their faces accompanied by an insult (in Miu’s case) or covering Angie’s sculptures in the flyers (something that was annoying but still artistically impressive enough for Angie to not be too mad at him). While it was efficient, it certainly wasn’t effective.

Rantarou hummed, pretending to be deep in thought. “Oh, man, I don’t know… That’s a tough one. What about Shuuichi?”

“Shuuichi?”

“Yeah. I’m sure he would love to come to one of your plays.”

Kokichi hummed as well, also pretending to be deep in thought. “Hmm… How about no?”

“Why not?”

“He’s not worthy.”

“Huh. Then why do you hang out with him every Friday? And why do you always talk about what he said to you? And why did I have to listen to Miu complain about being dragged out to pick a present for him?”

“Nishishi!” Kokichi laughed, though the light red painted on his ears and the fidgeting of his fingers made it clear that he didn’t find the situation humorous at all. “They were all lies, dummy! Jeez, Rantarou, I would’ve thought you would know my lies by now.”

And he did. That much was confirmed when Rantarou was forced to sit in on another lecture on Kokichi regretting his life decisions, hosted right after he witnessed Kokichi taping a flyer on Shuuichi’s back.

 

* * *

 

The best tip Kokichi had picked up from his years of living on this god forsaken planet was to never bring more than ten people to a karaoke room unless the entire group is close friends with each other. At that point, music tastes diverge, some members of the group start to feel awkward about singing in front of strangers, and so much more bullshit happens that he just learned to not bother. Another, more personal rule of his was to never go out to karaoke with people he wasn’t close with. His singing was far from the best, and he didn’t need a stranger possibly gaining leverage over him.

Of course, Kaede’s attempts to unite the class broke both of those rules.

And of course he still went. That being said, a fair number of people ducked out, citing excuses (Read: lies) ranging from having too much homework (Himiko had the least intense schedule out of everyone) to needing to visit family members in the hospital (Though nice try, Maki). That left a portion of the class. Then people started leaving after four two of torture. Which then left the total group number under ten, so the meeting only broke one rule. Go figure.

“Neither of you can rap!” Kokichi shouted above the bass of the song, laughing along with the other members of the group.

Both Miu and Kaito shot him a dirty look, though their “rapping” didn’t stop. The pain only paused after the song ended and both of them were left breathless.

Not that he could blame them. Being in the same room as Shuuichi could do that to him sometimes.

“Who hasn’t sung yet?” Kaede asked after tossing Kaito a bottle of water.

“The first one with just us was some random K-pop song,” Rantarou said, “I think I sang that one with you. Before you realized there was classical music on here for some reason, of course.”

“Hehe, that was fun.”

“And then Dicktarou and Gayto tried country,” Miu laughed, but the laughter was cut short when she ducked to dodge an empty water bottle thrown at her from across the room.

Kaito leaned back in his seat. “Oh, shut up. Tsumugi dragged you into J-pop.”

“Guilty as charged.” Tsumugi’s lips curled up into a wolfish smile that sent chills down Kokichi’s spine. “Which only leaves…”

All heads snapped towards Kokichi and Shuuichi.

Shuuichi caught onto the implication quickly, and he raised his palms in front of him. “W-Wait, I’m certain I did a song with Kaito an hour back.”

Kaito patted him on the back. “Sorry, bro, that was an hour ago. You gotta get out of your comfort zone.”

“I’m always out of my comfort zone…”

“Jesus, stop being edgy and just sing,” Miu scoffed. “You haven’t said anything, Cockichi. What are you doing, thinking of a lie to get yourself out of this?”

Well, that was one hell of a callout.

“Pff, no!” Kokichi said. He was determined to lie to victory, and there was nothing that would stop him. “Who do you think I am, some kinda scaredy cat?”

“Yeah.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“I’ll pick the song!” Tsumugi squealed, diving for the remote controller on the table. Before Kokichi or Shuuichi could reach it in time, she typed in a random song whose title went by too quickly for either of them to read.

Kaede smiled. “Tsumugi, December’s already passed.”

“Shh.”

The beginning notes played, and that was when Kokichi realized Tsumugi was the more than likely the biggest snake this friend group had ever seen.

Fuck it. If he was going down, he was going down with glory.

Kokichi closed his eyes and tried his best to replicate the dramatic faces of the singers he knew. He sang the beginning of the introduction, accompanied by laughter from the people around him, before opening his eyes and pointing straight at Shuuichi. “All I want for Christmas… is you.”

Shuuichi’s face flushed red, and he covered his mouth with his hand, clearly amused but still embarrassed.

Kokichi pushed past everything screaming at him to run out of the room and continued on with the first verse and chorus. Before he could begin the second verse, he was interrupted with a soft, beautiful voice. He whirled back around to Shuuichi after the verse had already passed, his heart stuttering.

“‘Cause I just want you here tonight, holding onto me so tight,” Shuuichi sang, an embarrassed smile on his face. “What more can I do? Oh baby, all I want for Christmas is you.”

Their eyes met, and everything clicked.

They continued and finished the song together, a new, mutual understanding developed between them.

Their friends cheered, and that was the end of their allotted time.

“See?” Kaito boomed as they exited towards the streets of the plaza. “Told ya you can do it!”

“Ha… thanks, Kaito,” Shuuichi said, rubbing at his red face and willing the blush to fade away.

Kaede set a hand on his shoulder and offered him a kind smile. “That turned out better than expected. You should go talk to him.”

“Who?”

“You know.” Kaede giggled at the perplexed expression on his face before pulling Kaito aside to plan out where they would eat.

Near the back of their traveling pack, Kokichi was about a centimeter close to knocking the smirk off everyone’s faces.

Miu whistled, the sound stuttering from her laughter. “Wow, didn’t know you could vibrate like my dildo.”

“Gee, thanks, Miu,” Kokichi spat blankly.

“I mean, the dildo’s better, but—”

“You did really well,” Rantarou said, “Highlight of the day, really.”

Tsumugi tugged at both Rantarou and Miu’s sleeves before Kokichi could respond with a scathing remark. She whispered something to them before leading them towards where Kaede and Kaito bounced restaurant ideas off each other, but not before shooting Kokichi a wink.

Fucking snake.

Before he knew it, Shuuichi had joined his side, his cheeks pink from what Kokichi would have assumed was the weather if he didn’t know any better.

“Hey,” Shuuichi croaked out, his smile warm and dopey.

Kokichi’s heart flipped as he returned the smile. “Hey! I didn’t know everyone could sing better than that blonde trash.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, no, I knew, but…”

“Listen, um…” Shuuichi stared down at his feet, his fingers playing with the fringe of his coat. “I… I really like you. I was wondering if, uh…”

Kokichi tapped Shuuichi on the cheek. “Hey, at least look at someone when you’re confessing! How rude!”

“S-Sorry!”

“Jeez, I’m kidding. Though that’s usually what you should do.” Kokichi smiled when their eyes met. “I would love to go out with you. And that’s not a lie. I like you, Shuuichi.”

The words took a moment for Shuuichi to process. He stayed frozen before laughter escaped him.

“I’m so glad,” he said, straightening his back. “So, so glad.”

“Watch out!”

“Wha—”

Kokichi dove forward and wrapped Shuuichi into a hug, knocking them both to the ground. He laughed as their friends clapped and wolf-whistled in the background, allowing himself to show a warm smile.

Shuuichi laughed before standing up again, offering Kokichi a hand. “Look, it’s snowing.”

Kokichi looked up as he stumbled to his feet. Indeed it was.

The snow came down in small flakes, fluttering down onto the ground as delicately as possible. It was only a matter of time before it would consume the streets, as pointed out by Miu screaming about the temperatures inside the school’s robotics room and Kaito screaming about him not snow-proofing his car yet.

But as Kokichi slipped his hand into Shuuichi’s, they gazed at the skies, smiling at the beauty around them.

This was their moment.


End file.
